Speaking of Easter....

Okay, maybe we're not speaking of Easter, but I was going through some files on my computer this morning and found this picture.

I think it was taken at Easter, just a few years ago. Okay, maybe it was actually taken in like 1982 or so, but the point is that I look a lot different now. So does my brother for that matter. I never realized he had such big ears. That's definitely thanks to my dad's side of the family.
I sure do think Asher looks like my brother - perhaps even more than he looks like Steve or myself.

2 Months Old!

Can't believe my baby is 2 months old already! This was taken on Sunday, just after he got out of the bath - what's been one of his few happy moments lately.

I am so not used to having a fussy baby and it's been so draining! It seems like the only time he's happy is if he's sleeping or having a pacifier held in his mouth.  He is such a little sweetheart, but definitely has furthered convinced me that Asher should have been the poster child for the easiest baby in the world. Here's hoping it's a stage he grows out of, because all this crying is breaking my heart. What's ironic, is that he doesn't fuss quite as much when we're out and about and my consolation prize is that he's always been a great sleeper at night, which might explain why he hardly ever naps during the daytime.

We joined the Y last week and I'm so ready to start working out! Two back to back pregnancies has definitely taken a toll on my body and I sure have packed on the pounds. I'm also super excited to start working out just to have a little time to myself every day. The kicker is that since Atley has been so fussy and inconsolable unless someone holds him while holding the pacifier in his mouth (he can't keep it in on his own), I can't really take the kids in and put them in the childcare. Since I know he can't be held the entire time with all the other kids in there, it would only be a short few minutes before I was paged over the intercom to come calm him down, which defeats the purpose of trying to work out, so we've yet to make it to the Y.  Thankfully, the weather  has been beautiful so we've been taking some nice long walks every day, which actually beats going to the gym anyway.

On to other news, we've started to live life again. Went to a chili cook off on Friday night, had friends over for dinner on Saturday and then visited the botanical gardens on Sunday. Despite our fussy little guy, we're starting to get the hang of juggling two kids. I'm sure once Atley gets to the age where he has a specific nap time and routine though all that will change and we'll be back to never leaving the house  again between both of the kids nap times.

For now though, we're enjoying life and getting out as much as possible while life and the weather permits it.  Happy Fall everyone!

Twins?

I was looking at both some old and recent pictures this morning.

Can you tell which one is Asher and which one is Atley?

Yes, they definitely have some differences, but I still can't believe how much alike our boys look. I'm interested to see if those differences fade as they grow. As it is now, I don't think Asher looks at all like he did as an infant, but then again, a lot of that is due to the crooked haircut he now wears. :)

Haircut #2

Yep, we had to cut this kids hair yet again! I don't know all that many 9 month olds who have had their hair cut twice already, but considering that he has the combination of both Steve and I's "hair genes" I"m not surprised.

Steve cut it super short this time, partially so we didn't have to cut it for awhile again, and partially because he messed up so he had no choice but to really chop it off. It will probably look ackward for a little while, but at the rate this kids hair grows, it will be long again in no time. He looks like a completely different baby. I already miss the longer hair, because now my baby looks like a BIG BOY!

 Here he is just when Steve first starting cutting his hair:

And the finished product.....

And since we're on the subject of Asher, here's another cute picture of his new annoying habit. These past few days,  he's decided that it's really fun to suck his thumb while I feed him a bottle. I don't know where all of this has come from, since he's never been a thumb sucker before. Needless to say, it takes about twice as long to feed him this way. He gets mad if I pull his thumb out of his mouth, and if I let him keep it there, he just dribbles milk all over the place and it takes forever for him to drink even just a little bit.  What a weirdo...but we sure do love him!

9 Months!

 I can't believe my baby is 9 months old already! It seems like we just had him yesterday, but it also feels like he's been part of our family forever! We love our little Asher so much! He's such a fun kid - always laughing and being silly and bringing joy to everyone around him.
We couldn't love him more if we tried.
He's crawling all over the place and getting into everything he shouldn't. This kid keeps on our toes!

He's gonna be a great big brother! We love you Asher Struck!

playing with daddy's headphones and trying to be like Uncle Andy!

Outnumbered 3 to 1

Well, the results are in and there's no question about it - it's a BOY! Asher is gonna have so much fun with a younger brother so close to his age! Because of the time of year that both of them will be born, it looks like they'll be going to kindergarten together to!

I'm super happy that we don't have to buy any clothes - yes, Miss Practical, I am! I kinda thought we were having a girl, but wasn't surprised at all when we heard boy. The pregnancies have just been so similar, and even though I thought it was a girl, I knew that realisically it was more likely to be a boy than girl.

It's been an up and down week around here. Most exciting moment of the last week - meeting cute little baby Teddy for the first time! He's so cute and seeing him made me SO excited to have another little teeny tiny baby of our own soon!
Tim and Amanda also came up to visit for the weekend and it was so fun to see them. Everytime we have friends from St. Louis here it makes me realize just how much we miss all of our friends back home. I'm so grateful though that we have made so many wonderful friends here in Madison, and I know that eventually one day once we move on we'll be missing all of these friends to. Such is life!

The down side of our week - our little man is working on a tooth that I can barely see. Hopefully it will just pop through some day because these last few days have been miserable for Asher and myself. I just feel so bad that he's in pain and wish there was more I could do to help. In the meantime though, the rocking chair has become my home in the middle of the night. Why is it that when babies are teething it seems to hurt them most at night? So puzzling. I don't remember the other two teeth really bothering Asher much at all except for a day or so, so this long drawn out process has been rough on us all!
Speaking of the little bugger, he's summoning me now. Gotta go!

This and That

It's been a busy week around here. We put up our tree - first time we've ever got it up November. We just figured with us being out a lot in these next few weeks we might as well get it taken care of. Asher loves staring at all the lights and loved watching us set it up. He's been loving this sock monkey that Steve's parents got him lately. Mostly I think he likes to chew on his arm and legs. Speaking of chewing - we have our first tooth! It hasn't broken through all the way yet, but the sharp edges are peeking out!

Asher loved watching us put up the tree. It looks kinda naked here because we hadn't put on the ornaments yet.

Other great news around here - Asher graduated from speech therapy! Yea! We had what we hope is our last visit this week. He's shown a lot of improvement with being able to take a bottle and although we'll probably delay giving him solids for a little while, the therapist thinks he should be just fine with no future problems! We'll wait in a few months and see how solids go, but if everything looks good we should be completely finished with having to do all those darn tongue exercises that take up so much time. He's also able to finish a bottle in about just 15 minutes now (as compared to 45), so we are really encouraged!

He's babbling up a storm now and has started rolling over - our little boy is getting so big!

Here's a few pics taken in the last week.

On to other new,s we're preparing for our big trip to Montana next week. I'm a little nervous about this flying with a baby business and hope it isn't to rough. After this we're looking forward to a quiet few months with no traveling and our first family Christmas together here in Madison.

Sorry for such a boring update. Such is life these days.

Faith = RISK

We were talking about faith in our community group last night and it got me thinking about what I've learned through my journey in faith.

When I look back on my life, I see that my faith has grown through the little stepping stones of obedience that I've taken. The more that I learn to trust in God, it seems that it gets both easier and harder. Easier in the sense that I know He's never let me down so I don't really have a reason NOT to trust him. Harder in the sense that I've seen a progression, and as I've learned to put more of my trust and faith in God even greater faith has been expected of me.

I think back to our move to Madison.  It took a lot of faith for Steve and I to uproot ourselves, sell our house and move to a new city where we knew absolutely no one and had no jobs. Everyone knows our story. I moved here by myself to look for a job thinking it wouldn't be that difficult while Steve stayed back in St. Louis.  Almost 3 months passed before I finally found a job here and Steve was able to quit his job and join me. What a long few months those were, but my faith was tested in ways it never had been before. Fast forward to Steve joining me here in Madison, when it took him 9 long months to find work. Believe me when I say our trust was in God and God alone through that season. Days (literally) after Steve got hired we decided it was time to start a family.

Faith with that decision comes into play here - had we not had the previous year of testing as our faith was strengthened through having to really trust in God with our situation, I really don't think Asher would be in the picture today. It was growing in our faith and trust in God that brought us to the point of knowing that it was okay to start a family because we knew that we would be taken care of.

Just the other day Steve and I were talking about our old life. When I asked him if he thought we would have started a family yet if we were still living in St. Louis he said no.  Although we were making a whole lot more money there, we hadn't walked through some of the trials that had come about through uprooting our lives here to Madison and I really don't think we would have had the faith to step out and trust God to bring a baby into the picture. I'm just being real, no, I'm not a perfect Christian that always has "the faith to move mountains."

Now, I look back on our journey of faith. It started with trusting God with the little things and now has grown to the point where really I'm not that concerned about our lives because I really do trust God to take care of us. I see the journey from taking that giant leap of faith to uproot our lives and all that I've learned throughout the very detailed process and just how faithful God has been to us.  Quitting my job to stay home with Asher has been another huge leap of faith for us, but again, God has been faithful.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard churches, said it well when he said "faith" is spelled R-I-S-K. It really is - taking risks for God is what has strengthened my faith over the years.  I don't know what's in the future for us, but I can guarantee that there will be a lot of risk-taking. The kind that in 10 years will cause me to look back on this season of life, and all of the trusting and faith building that I've done in the last 2 years will seem like a breeze compared to the giant mountain that will be ahead of me.....and that's when grace comes into play. :)

I'm excited to be risk taker for Jesus - scared, but excited. I want my faith to increase, and I know that the only way that will happen is through walking through the challenges of life, and that's something that I'm learning to embrace.

Asher is 4 months old!

I can't believe our little boy is 4 months old today! It seems like the last 4 months have gone by so quickly, but it also feels like Asher's been with us forever. We are just as in love as possible with this little boy.

Lately I've just been feeling so incredibly blessed - blessed that God trusts us with this sweet little boy. I know ultimately he's really just been put on loan to us from God and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to parent him. I know that everything we have is Gods, but somehow when it comes down to the reality of it all, both the hardest and easiest thing to give up to God is our child. It's hard because our son means everything in the world to us. Our cars and house can be replaced, but this little boy is irreplaceable and to so willingly give him back to the God who has given him to us in the first place feels heartbreaking. On the other hand, it's also very easy because we know that this wonderful God that we've entrusted our entire lives to only wants what's best for us and our child and there's so much comfort in knowing that He will always take care of us and our family. It's so comforting to know that we're not alone and that we have a God to put our trust on this journey called parenting.

Our little guy is now just a little over 18 pounds. He is so much fun. Always smiling and giggling and loves to look at himself in the mirror. He sits up like a champ, but has yet to roll over. I think he's working on getting his first tooth right now. He is the sweetest and happiest little baby that I have ever laid eyes on....of course I am just a little biased though.

Happy 4 month birthday Asher!

3 Months!

Somebody's looking pretty rough and tough!

I realized I haven't posted pictures of our big little guy in awhile, so here goes! He is still growing like crazy! What's amazing is that he's really started to slow down on how much he eats and is actually eating quite a bit less than what is recommended for his weight (16 pounds a few weeks ago, I haven't weighed him since). Since he's growing so quickly though, I'm not concerned.

On to other extremely exciting news, he has moved into his own room and the big boy crib! The cradle is still in our room, but will be going out to the garage to be stored sometime soon. It was almost like Amelia passed on the good sleeper torch while she was here. He not only started sleeping through the night, but also has started more of a routine with naps. He pretty much will sleep from 10 pm - 6 am now and it's so great! What's surprising is how tired I've felt! Amazingly, now that I'm getting some more solid sleep I feel almost more tired than I was when I was waking up to feed him. It's so darn weird.

Anyway, our little guy is just as cute as ever and every day I'm amazed at the new things he's learning and how quickly he's growing. Sometimes I still feel kind of in shock that I'm actually a parent! Steve and I are so in love with this kid and it's hard to look back and imagine our lives without him in it. He brings so much joy to us!

Without further ado, here's some recent pics.

He look like a little old man in this one! So cute!

I can't get enough of those cute chubby cheeks!